The invention relates to an ultrasonic tomography device with an ultrasonic transmitting and receiving system for line-by-line scanning from different angles of an object under examination. The invention includes a fluid tank for immersion of the object to be examined, a cover for the fluid tank with a round opening in the center for insertion of the object under examination, and a support for an ultrasonic transmitting and receiving system which rotates in the fluid tank around an essentially vertical axis aligned in the direction of the round opening in the center of the cover.
Ultrasonic tomography devices can be operated according to both the transmission and the reflection methods. An ultrasonic tomography device for transmission tomography (UCTT), for example, is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,105,018. Ultrasonic tomography devices for reflection tomography (UCTR), for example, are disclosed by "Resolution and Image Quality by Ultrasonic Echo Tomography: Experimental Approach" by E. Hundt, G. Maderlechner, E. Kronmueller, and E. Trautenberg from the "Fifth International Symposium on Ultrasonic Imaging and Tissue Characterization and Second International Symposium on Ultrasonic Materials Characterization", June 1-6, 1980, page 7. "Ultrasonic Reflectivity Tomography: Reconstruction with Circular Transducer Arrays" by Stephen J. Norton and Melvin Linzer from "Ultrasonic Imaging 1", 1979, pages 154 to 184, also discloses devices for reflection tomography.
In existing ultrasonic tomography devices, the transmitting system can be mounted on a support that can be rotated around a verticle axis, so that horizontal sections known as "coronal sections" can be made from different directions through the object under examination, such as a female breast or male testicle, which is immersed in a fluid tank. The "coronal sections" are created by rotating the support around the vertical axis. In order to record the entire object under examination in this manner, the relative vertical position between the transmitting and the receiving system and the object under examination must be changed after each individual section. This permits only indirect determination of structural changes in the verticle direction by evaluating the information from a minimum of two adjacent sections.